Speakers

Charles A. Sternbach has explored for and discovered Energy in the U.S. and around the globe for 38 years. He was Staff Geologist for Shell Oil Company, Exploration Manager for Tom Jordan (Jordan Oil and Gas), President of First Place Energy (international frontier exploration), and is currently President of Star Creek Energy. Charles has a Ph.D. (and M.Sc.) in Geology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.A. in geology from Columbia University. He was appointed a University of Houston Energy Fellow and adjunct professor 2018.

Charles is a proud member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and he was the 2017/2018 President of this 30,000 member organization. He is a co-editor with Dr. Robert Merrill on the fifth installment of the AAPG memoir series Giant Fields of the Decade 2000-2010 (Memoir 113) and they are working on the 2010-2020 next edition. In April 2017 he served as lead editor of the AAPG/DPA Book: Heritage of the Petroleum Geologist. This book celebrated 101 great men and women geoscientists for AAPG’s 100th Anniversary. He focuses on exploration creativity exemplified by creation and moderation of AAPG popular programs like Discovery Thinking, Playmaker, and Super Basin forums.

Charles resides in Houston, Texas. In addition to his service to AAPG, Charles has also served as past president Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, past president Houston Geological Society, and past president of AAPG’s Division of Professional Affairs. He has been recognized with Honorary Membership by each of these organizations. His wife Linda is a distinguished geophysical advisor.

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Dr. Owen E. Sutcliffe is the Head of Global Geological and Geophysical Practices in Landmark, Halliburton and is based in Halliburton’s offices in Abingdon, UK. Dr. Sutcliffe joined Landmark in 2014 after the acquisition of Neftex Petroleum Consultants and subsequently managed the Neftex® Insights portfolio of products. Prior to joining Neftex in 2003, Dr Sutcliffe had worked at Badley Ashton & Associates and LASMO. Dr. Sutcliffe obtained Bsc (Hons) in Geological Sciences from the University of Leeds in 1993 before moving on to the University of Bristol where he obtained a PhD in Sedimentology in 1997. Dr Sutcliffe is a member of The Geological Society, London and the PESGB.

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Andrew Pepper is a Petroleum Systems Analyst with 37 years of experience in a wide range of technical and leadership positions at BP, Hess, and BHP Billiton, where he held the VP Geoscience position. In 2015 he founded This is Petroleum Systems LLC “TIPS”, conducting studies, training, research, and tool development. Andy and co-workers have studied the Permian basin since 2012, with projects ranging from regional-scale basin reconstruction and fluid prediction to pore-scale petroleum storage, saturation, relative permeability, and water cuts in Shale reservoirs.

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Mike Party is CEO/President of Beryl Oil and Gas, LP and a General Partner in Cardinal Resources, LLC, and has been working in the Oil and Gas industry for 39 years. He graduated from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1978 with a B.S. degree in geology/geophysics and was awarded an Honorary Professional Degree in 1994.

He started his career with Cities Services working as a geophysicist, he then joined Wagner & Brown in 1981 serving as Exploration Manager for 9 years before joining Reliance Energy in November 2009. Mike served as Vice President of Exploration for Reliance Energy until Reliance Energy’s main assets were sold to Concho Resources in October 2016.

Mike is an active member of local, national, and international geological societies. Most notably, has served as the President of the Southwest Section of the AAPG, Secretary of AAPG, President of the Division of Professional Affairs within the AAPG, and is the current President-Elect of AAPG and will be President 2019-2020. He also served as President of the West Texas Geological Society and the Permian Basin Section of SEPM.

Mike was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni from the University of Missouri –Rolla and Honorary Life membership from both the West Texas Geological Society and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He is a Certified Geologist within the State of Texas and is a Certified Petroleum Geologist and Certified Petroleum Geophysicist by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Dr. John W. Snedden is Senior Research Scientist and Director of the Gulf Basin Depositional Synthesis Project at the Institute for Geophysics, The University of Texas at Austin. He received degrees from Trinity University (San Antonio), Texas A&M University (College Station), and Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge). Prior to joining UT, John worked for Mobil and ExxonMobil for over 25 years in research, exploration, development with multiple domestic and international assignments.

John has served as Vice-President of GCS-SEPM and Secretary-Treasurer of SEPM. He won the SEPM Excellence in Oral Presentation award, GCAGS Journal Best Paper Award and AAPG’s A.I. Levorsen Best Paper Award. He was selected as a Heritage of the Petroleum Geologist honorees by AAPG in 2017. He has also served as overall technical chair of several AAPG and GCS-SEPM domestic and international conventions.

John has published over 35 scientific papers 25 of which he is the first author. John and William Galloway have completed a new book called Depositional Evolution of the Gulf of Mexico Sedimentary Basin: Foundational Science and Practical Applications, currently scheduled for publication by Cambridge University Press in 4Q2019.

Catherine Belgarde has been an exploration geoscientist at BHP Petroleum since 2013 and currently manages the Regional Caribbean Exploration Team. Prior to BHP, she was an exploration geoscientist at ExxonMobil for 5 years. Catherine has worked regional-scale exploration and new ventures around the globe, including Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Australia, Nigeria, Iraq, and Oman. Her primary interest is in understanding the tectonic processes of basin formation and evolution. She received a Masters degree in Structural Geology from the University of California-Los Angeles in 2006 and a Bachelors degree in Geology from the College of William & Mary in 2004.

David is currently General Manager – Onshore New Ventures for Santos in Brisbane, Australia. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford, and a B.Sc. from the University of Tasmania. David worked in Mexico, U.S.A, Canada and Australia for Schlumberger, Apache Canada and Origin Energy prior to joining Santos in 2018. David has worked in a range of conventional and unconventional exploration and development roles and has developed expertise in unconventional resource exploration and evaluation, geomodelling and geostatistics, and quantitative seismic interpretation. David is a member of PESA, SPE, and AAPG.

Dr. Lugo is a Geologist graduated from Universidad Central de Venezuela in 1980 and holds a Ph.D. from University of Texas at Austin in 1991. He is a basin and a petroleum system analyst with over 40 years of experience in the oil industry in hydrocarbon exploration projects, both in regional and local settings.

Dr. Lugo was a graduate lecturer at the Universidad Central de Venezuela for nine years and advisor for several graduate students. He offered several technical international seminars in Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and USA.

From 1979 to January 2003 Dr. Lugo held different managerial and executive positions at Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA). During his last three years at PDVSA, he co-managed the approval for all exploration projects onshore and offshore Venezuela. From 2003 to September 2004 he was Director for Exploration in Arauca Energy Group. From 2004 to 2016 he was the senior Vice President Exploration of Pacific Rubiales Energy where he conducted the exploration for 60 exploration contracts in Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Guyana and Guatemala. He is currently the Exploration Director for Latam Oil and Gas corporation.

Emeliana is the Vice President of Exploration at PETRONAS and has been responsible for PETRONAS global exploration business and geoscience function based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia since April 2016.

Emeliana started her career as a biostratigrapher more than 25 years ago and since then has held numerous technical, managerial and leadership roles in Upstream in Shell and PETRONAS in Malaysia, Asia Pacific, North Sea, Brazil, US and Latin America. Since June 2012 she has served as the Senior General Manager and Vice President of Exploration Malaysia at PETRONAS. Her experience covers the full spectrum of the exploration business, including appraisal & field development, as well as strategy, portfolio and business planning.

Emeliana is a Director of PETRONAS Gas Berhad and PETRONAS Management Training Sdn. Bhd. She is a member of the Geological Society of Malaysia, Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Association of Petroleum Geologist, the champion of PETRONAS Leading Women’s Network and advisory member of the Malaysia Women in Energy.

Emeliana holds a degree in geology from the University of South Carolina, USA. She is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program from the Harvard Business School.

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ConocoPhillips and predecessor companies 1981 – present:

• 2016 – present Geologic Fellow, Exploration New Ventures, Regional Growth Team. Houston
• 2009 – 2016 Geologic Fellow, US L48 unconventional exploration. Houston
• 2007 – 2009 Director, Circum Arctic Team. Houston
• 1997 – 2006 Manager, North Slope Satellite Exploration. Anchorage
• 1994 – 1997 Director, Petroleum Systems Research, ARCO Exploration and Production Technology lab. Plano, TX
• 1990 – 1994 Supervisor, Prudhoe Bay Field Development Geoscience. Anchorage
• 1981 – 1990 Geologist – North Slope, Chukchi Sea, Cook Inlet, and Alaska interior basins. Anchorage

2001 - P Ph. D. (Geochemistry), University of Texas at Dallas; “Petroleum Filling History of Central Alaskan North Slope Fields.”

Dr. Steve Sonnenberg is a Professor of Geology and holds the Charles Boettcher Distinguished Chair in Petroleum Geology at the Colorado School of Mines. He specializes in unconventional reservoirs, sequence stratigraphy, tectonic influence on sedimentation, and petroleum geology. A native of Billings, Montana, Sonnenberg received BS and MS degrees in geology from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. degree in geology from the Colorado School of Mines. Steve began teaching at Colorado School of Mines in 2007 after working in the petroleum industry for over 25 years.

Steve has served as President of several organizations including the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, RMS-AAPG and Colorado Scientific Society.

James Deckelman is Vice President of New Ventures Access, ION E&P Advisors. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Geology from Miami University and his Master’s in Geology from Utah State University. James has over 25 years of industry experience working with BP, ARCO International, ConocoPhillips, Talisman Energy and CAMAC Energy. He has held a wide variety of technical and managerial positions including: Vice President, Global Exploration, CAMAC; Vice President, Exploration, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, Talisman; Vice President, Indonesia, ConocoPhillips. Throughout his career, James has generated in excess of $2 billion in NPV through exploration success and has led ultra-deepwater to unconventional exploration ventures that have added more than 1 billion barrels of recoverable resource. He has led multiple new-country entries and has contributed to full-value-chain, multi-national, gas-monetization projects.

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Misfir AzZahrani earned a Bachelor Degree of Science in Geology from King Saud University.

He was the General Manager of Prospect Portfolio Development in Exploration, prior to his current post as Executive Director of Exploration at Saudi Aramco.

Mr. AzZahrani attended University Executive and Business programs at Tuck, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Oxford Institute of Energy. He served as a member on the board of Upstream Joint Ventures, member of professional societies and appointed member of the Kingdom’s Mining Strategy. Mr. AzZahrani is also a member of College of Petroleum and Geosciences Advisory Council at KFUPM, and a Board member of Saudi Aramco Upstream Technology Company.

John B. Curtis has worked with GeoMark Research in various capacities since 1996. He is currently responsible for their U.S. and Canadian Rocky Mountain and SCOOP/STACK petroleum system/resource potential studies. He received a B.A. (1970) and M.Sc. (1972) in geology from Miami University and a Ph.D. (1989) in geology from The Ohio State University. He is a licensed Professional Geologist (Wyoming). Curtis was a Minuteman Missile Launch Officer and Instructor Launch Officer in the United States Air Force from 1972-1975.

Dr. Curtis is also Professor Emeritus of Geology and Geological Engineering and past Director, Potential Gas Agency at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). He was Associate and then Full Professor at CSM from July 1990 until his retirement in June 2016. While at Mines, he supervised graduate student research and taught petroleum geology, petroleum geochemistry and petroleum design. He had 15 years prior experience in the petroleum industry with Texaco, SAIC, Columbia Gas, and Brown & Ruth Laboratories/Baker-Hughes. He served on and chaired several professional society and natural gas industry committees, which included the Supply Panel, Research Coordination Council, and the Science and Technology Committee of the Gas Technology Institute (Gas Research Institute). Curtis co-chaired the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) Committee on Unconventional Petroleum Systems from 1999-2004 and was an invited member of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and the AAPG Committee on Resource Evaluation from 1992 until 2014. He was a Counselor to the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists from 2002-2004 and RMAG delegate to AAPG for nine years. Curtis is a 2019 recipient of the AAPG Distinguished Service Award.

Dr. Curtis was an Associate Editor of the AAPG Bulletin from 1997 – 2010 and continues to review manuscripts for several journals. He has published studies and given numerous invited talks concerning source rock and oil geochemistry, exploration for unconventional reservoirs, and the size and distribution of U.S., and Canadian natural gas resources and comparisons of resource assessment methodologies. As Director of the CSM Potential Gas Agency from 1991 - 2016, he directed a team of 100 volunteer geologists, geophysicists and petroleum engineers for the Potential Gas Committee’s biennial assessment of remaining U.S. natural gas resources. The dedication of the volunteers of the Potential Gas Committee is directly responsible for Dr. Curtis being awarded the 2014 AAPG Public Service award, and the 2016 RMAG Distinguished Public Service to Earth Science award.

Barbara Lowery-Yilmaz is Senior Vice President, Exploration for Hess Corporation, a global independent energy company engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas.

Yilmaz has 38 years of oil and gas industry experience in exploration and technology senior leadership roles.

She leads the global Exploration, Appraisal and Non-operated Guyana JV organization for Hess, setting and implementing strategy. Under her leadership, Hess Exploration has been successful in the Guyana Stabroek area with 15 discoveries and most recently with the Esox subsalt Miocene discovery in the Gulf of Mexico.

Prior to joining Hess in 2014, Lowery-Yilmaz led a variety of businesses and teams at BP.

Yilmaz earned her Bachelor and Master degrees in Geology from Louisiana State University.

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Laiyyan Al Kharusi was born In the Sultanate of Oman. She completed her Bachelor Degree in Imperial College, University of London, her Masters at Royal Holloway College, University of London and he PhD at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Miami. She has worked for Occidental Oil and Gas and has over 15 years experience.

Arpita Mandal has 17 years of experience as exploration geologist in onland, shallow water, deep and ultra-deepwater acreages offshore India, Australia and Africa with E & P companies. She is specialized in Play-based exploration, portfolio analysis and risk assessment. Her work was credited with multiple discoveries including deep water that led to commercial production of oil and gas fields. She is currently working as the Exploration Team Lead for Barmer Basin, India. She has authored publications in AAPG & EAGE. She holds Master of Technology with specialized in Geo-Exploration from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and Master of Applied Geology from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Her interest lies in travelling and reading.

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Andrea Cozzi is currently Managing Director of Eni Lebanon, Eni Sharjah and Eni Ras Al Khaimah and Exploration Director at Eni Abu Dhabi.

He joined Eni 13 years ago and before moving to the present positions Andrea was VP Exploration North/East Africa & Middle East, VP for Geology & Geophysics Specialist studies and VP of the Exploration Technical Assurance Group at Eni HQ in Milan. Earlier he was posted abroad covering several roles in defined and new venture exploration in India, Angola, Libya and Egypt.

Before joining Eni Andrea worked as a Lecturer at the Department of Earth Sciences at ETH Zurich, conducting several research projects in carbonate sedimentology and geochemistry, cyclostratigraphy and reservoir geology, teaching lab and field courses in sedimentology and structural geology in Oman, Southern Alps of Northern Italy and Western US.

He holds a Laurea in Geology cum laude from University of Trieste (Italy) and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Geology and Geochemistry from the Johns Hopkins University (U.S.A.).

Henry S. Pettingill is a Petroleum Geologist and Exploration Manager with 37 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Upon retiring from Noble Energy in 2018, he became an industry consultant. He is currently Chairman of the Rose and Associates DHI Interpretation and Risking Consortium, which has 37 member companies in North America, Europe and Asia. He held various positions with Noble Energy Inc. where he finished his career as Chief Geoscientist. Prior to that, he served as Director of Business Innovation from 2013-2015, and as Director of Exploration Technology from 2002-2013. His responsibilities included overseeing the Global Exploration Portfolio, Risk Analysis, and Geoscience Technology. Prior to joining Noble, he held various technical and managerial positions within Repsol and Royal Dutch/Shell. His assignments have focused on Deepwater Exploration and Appraisal, International Exploration/New Ventures, Exploration Risk Analysis, and Portfolio Management. He has taught classroom and field courses in Deep Water Clastics, Exploration Risk Analysis, and Creativity and Innovation for E&P Organizations. Henry had key roles in early Shell deepwater discoveries in the GOM and NW Borneo, as well as major Noble discoveries in the GOM, Israel/Cyprus, West Africa, and Onshore USA. In 2017, he was recognized by AAPG as one of the industry’s “100 Explorationists Who Made a Difference”.

Mr. Pettingill holds a BA degree from the University of Rochester and an MSc degree from Virginia Tech (USA), and completed the Executive Management Program at INSEAD Euroforum (Spain). He is an AAPG Certified Petroleum Geologist, Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists Licensed Geologist, and an active member of AAPG, SEG, and SPE. He is a Trustee Associate of the SEG and AAPG Foundations.

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Martin graduated with a Master’s in Geology from the University of Zürich and subsequently went on to take a Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Bern in Switzerland.

He joined Shell in 1991, starting in Shell’s E&P research lab in Rijswijk. This was followed by positions in Exploration in South America and Asia where he had various roles such as Regional Geologist for Shell Colombia, Deepwater Exploration Team Leader in Malaysia, Exploration manager Shell Malaysia and Exploration Manager South East Asia.

In 2005 Martin moved to Oman as Exploration Director for PDO and in 2011 he was appointed as VP China, accountable for growing the China Upstream Business.

Since April 2016 he is in Houston, enjoying his role as Vice President Exploration for North America and Brazil.

Martin is married to Barbara and they have two children. In his spare time, he enjoys golf, scuba diving and travelling.

Jamie joined Westwood Energy in 2015 and is a Senior Analyst in the Global Exploration and Appraisal team. In his role Jamie monitors global exploration activity, with a deep focus on Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern South America. He leads production of Westwood’s monthly exploration report as well as preparing research notes on various aspects of global exploration activity and performance. He regularly presents to senior staff in client companies and has presented at a number of global exploration conferences. Jamie holds a BSc in Geology from the University of Bristol and a MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Manchester.